Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Whether you like to lounge on the balcony or share a drink with your loved ones on the patio, a well-shaded area can make your outdoor experience so much more pleasant. Covering the verandah or the balcony will not only protect your space from the natural elements like heat and rain, but they will also give you privacy. Outdoor curtains can be hung in balconies and patios for aesthetic pleasure as well. Discover the varieties of outdoor curtains you can buy for your home: Probably the most common method to provide a shield from the sun, screens or blinds made from natural bamboo will give a tropical look to any outdoor setting and would provide shade from the bright sun during peak hours efficiently. This thick bamboo screen is sized at 48 inches x 84 inches and is equipped with a thick fabric and bamboo to provide protection from sun rays, dust, rain and even hailstorms. This bamboo screen also comes with a 5-year warranty from the manufacturer against mold development.'; var randomNumber = Math.random(); var isIndia = (window.geoinfo && window.geoinfo.CountryCode === 'IN') && (window.location.href.indexOf('outsideindia') === -1 ); //console.log(isIndia && randomNumber For people looking for a more aesthetic option, these sheer curtains in the shade of beige would be a great choice. These outdoor curtains are ideal for protection against sun as they provide upto eighty to eighty-five percent of sun-blockage. These summer curtains are designed and manufactured in full size and window size, and are ideal for balconies, patios, verandas or any other outdoor area in the house. The curtains also feature elastic strings at the bottom corners, to keep the curtain in shape in case of heavy winds or storms. This pair of waterproof curtains is made with 100% Polyester Yarn and PU coating for waterproofing and water repellency. This curtain is ideal for protection against sun, wind, rain and hail. Designed and manufactured for a full door and window size, these curtains are ideal for balconies, verandas, patios and any outdoor area that needs a shade. Fitted with elastic strings at the bottom corners, the curtains come accompanied with four hooks and nails for locking curtains. If you are looking for a smaller variety of the Bamboo curtain, this product would be perfect for it. This curtain comes threaded on wire and is attached to a wooden bar with 2 metal hanging hoops. This curtain will act as a perfect screen against the sun and would even prevent bugs and insects from entering the vicinity of your home. Crafted in bamboo, this curtain will also bring a natural element indoors and create a rustic vibe. Perfect for front porch, pergola, cabana, covered patio, gazebo, dock, beach home and other outdoor spaces, these curtains are waterproof and thermally insulated to impede 90% of the light. With its innovative triple-weave technology, the curtains can also lower outdoor noise up to 10%. The curtains are machine washable and can also be steamed from time to time to maintain their freshness.

DISCLAIMER: The Times of India's journalists were not involved in the production of this article.

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Outdoor curtains for balconies, verandahs and patios - Times of India

The weather in south Louisiana has been absolutely gorgeous for the most part this spring. That has inspired Red Stick residents to grab their bikes or take a walk around the city

And now that restaurants are allowed to open up their patios for patrons to sit for a bit and eat takeoutfollowing necessary health precautions, of coursethat gives us all yet another reason to enjoy the outdoors while the nice weather lasts.

Baton Rouge restaurants have begun advertising their patio space on social media, and weve updated ourmaster list of restaurants open for takeout and deliveryto include information on which ones are opening up that coveted outdoor space as well.

Check out some options weve been eyeing below for this weekend, and click here for the full list. As always, let us know if your favorite restaurant should be added to the list!

Yes, please, to grilled cheese and tomato basil soup washed down with a draft beer. Mid City Beer Gardens gorgeous outdoor space is open again, and word has spread quickly. Keep in mind tables are placed further apart for the time being and capacity is limitedmeaning you cant pack the Beer Garden like you used to just yet.

Umami Japanese Bistro is a favorite for its beautifully crafted sushi, Japanese fare and a green tea crpe cake that the225 team is famous for swooning over. Its patio makes a great spot for an evening of fresh sushi and dessert.

Sure, mom would love some flowers for Mothers Day. But Anthonys Italian Deli is betting shed appreciate some lasagna, too. The patio is open, too, so you can enjoy all those homemade Italian favorites outside.

Mom wants lasagna for Mothers Day! (Its this Sunday ) Call to reserve yours for your mom, she deserves the best! 225-272-6817

Posted by Anthony's Italian Deli onTuesday, May 5, 2020

The parking lot at Parrains Seafood Restaurant is usually popping on the weekends. While COVID-19 may have changed things temporarily, you can still get Parrains enormous seafood platters and poboys for curbside pickup, or take your to-go boxes to the patio to get out of the house for the night.

This new-ish smoke house near Airline Highway and Greenwell Springs Road provides brisket, burgers, smoked chicken and more. And if you need a break from all the meat, the restaurant serves up fruit smoothies, too. And what better way to get your barbecue fix than at a picnic table, right?

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Check out these Baton Rouge restaurants for patio seating this weekend - 225 Baton Rouge

Memorial Day is just around the corner and that summer isn't far behind, so we had to jump on the opportunity to share this patio furniture sale going on now at Wayfair. Save upwards of 70% on patio tables, patio chairs, benches, loungers, and more across hundreds of styles and options

Parties, barbecues, and cookouts are coming, and you'll want to make sure you've got the right setup to host those awesome gatherings everyone is looking forward to. Picnic benches are always a great classic backyard gathering piece, but don't be afraid to check out the more modern styles and products you can find on sale today.

On top of picking up a sweet set of Philips Hue outdoor lights to set the perfect party mood, you can browse through the entire selection of patio furniture sales going on now at Wayfair.com:

We've put together a list of some of the best patio furniture deals you can find at Wayfair right now, with deals on classic backyard chairs to complete patio sets for full family gatherings. Read on to see T3's picks of some of the best patio furniture sales, where can save upwards of 70% off on select patio furniture deals!

Wayfair has thousands of items on sale from hundreds of shops and retailers around the world. You'll find deals on patio chairs, patio tables, loungers, benches, and more, all with unique designs and styles to suit any home.

If you're looking for garden furniture, head over to T3's guide to the best garden and patio furniture you'll want to keep an eye out for in 2020.

Selkirk Solid Wood Adirondack Chair | Was: $337 | Now: $124 | 63% off at Wayfair.comClassic style and design, Selkirk's Adirondack wood patio chair is perfect for lounging in the back yard on warm summer afternoons. Durable, weather-resistant sealed wood construction ensures this will be a family favorite chair for years to come.View Deal

Lancashire 4-Piece Rattan Sofa Seating Group w/ Cushions | Was: $949 | Now: $509 | 46% off at Wayfair.comA great conversational set for those seeking a more modern style for their patio set, this four piece set features two patio chairs, a patio sofa, and patio table. Durable, weather resistant frame and cushions provide a comfortable yet solid patio furniture set perfect for apartments, condos, and smaller homes.View Deal

Crispin Sun Lounger 2-Piece Set | Was: $2,268 | Now: $430 | 81% off at Wayfair.comThe perfect pool side pair, these sun loungers feature a durable woven resin wicker exterior and powder-coated iron frame for long lasting style. A classy, modern take on the pool side lounger that anyone looking to spruce up their patio with will love.View Deal

Jonathon 3-Piece Outdoor Dining Set | Was: $343 | Now: $225 | 34% off at Wayfair.comA summer classic, this three piece dining set offers a classic back yard barbecue feel and style that suits any home. Complete with table and benches, the solid wood construction is UV resistant to maintain color during those bright summer days.View Deal

Today's best Patio Ideas deals

Designers Fountain Ellington...

highwood Weatherly Garden...

Arcata Sunlounger Dark...

Safavieh Azuza Sun Lounger...

Today's best Firepits deals

Crosley Buckner Fire Pit in...

Memorial Day Sales 2020: T3's Top Memorial Day Sale Picks

For more news, reviews, and deals from the T3 team check out the articles below...

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Memorial Day sales are here with Wayfair's patio furniture sale save up to 70% on select pieces! - T3 US/CA

There could be a lot more al fresco dining in the City of North Vancouver this summer, as council moves to make it easier for restaurants to open up or expand patio spaces.

Mayor Linda Buchanan won councils support for a motion Monday night asking staff to start working on some rule changes that will help businesses survive the slow reopening process under the provinces COVID-19 guidelines.

The B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association is aiming to have its members opening by June 1, but restaurant capacity will likely be scaled back to help maintain physical distancing.

Adding more patio space was one of the top requests from city restaurant, pub and brewery owners who have met with Buchanan as part of the business advisory task force she convened to see how the city can best help them through the crisis.

They are really looking at the ability to have our staff develop simple, flexible and adaptable plans to be able to temporarily expand their patios as well as make sure that plan also allows for safe pedestrian movement of people past those businesses, she said.

In addition, Buchanan said she would like the plans to address possibly allowing consumption of alcohol in certain public spaces, so residents will have informal, safe outdoor places to socialize with their family and friends.

Coun. Holly Back, who also sits on the task force, said she was struck by how committed the business owners have been to ensuring their reopening doesnt put public health at risk.

These people have lost a lot of money over the last couple of months and so I was really pleasantly surprised at their attitudes about how they're going to get back into business. I truly feel, as a city, we need to help them as much as we possibly can.

Carving out some extra city space for people dining out will not only help the businesses get by, Coun. Tony Valente reasoned, but also help animate the streetscape.

Councils support for the motion was unanimous.

Lets all now pray for a beautiful summer, Buchanan added.

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City of North Van looks to quickly expand patio space - North Shore News

Photo provided by Ornamental Mouldings & Millwork

Transform a dull room by putting exposed wooden beams onto ceilings. More companies are touting it as a more affordable and less cumbersome project that even do-it-yourselfers can perform.

Wooden beams can enhance high ceilings and add a decorative element to a space. Companies are offering faux beams made to resemble the real look of wood to cut the costs. These faux wooden beams are available in a variety of styles and textures.

Photo provided by Ornamental Mouldings & Millwork

Plus, theyre lightweight, which lends itself to a DIY job. Prices vary, but a 13-foot faux wood beam, for example, can cost between $130 to $185. (Google faux wood beams and mouldings for options).

Add them to dress up a family room, master bedroom, or bathroom or even to add a rustic look to a kitchen.

One company, Ornamental Moulding & Millwork, touts DIY options such as its ambrosia maple and prefinished gray, which are lightweight, eight-foot-long hollow, U-shaped beams. They come with mounting plates and hardware for installation.

Photo provided by Ornamental Mouldings & Millwork

Were seeing people attach our beams to ceilings in family rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and bedrooms, says Keith Early, vice president of marketing and new product development at Ornamental Mouldings & Millwork. This definitely is a project a DIYer can tackle. Whether its adding straight beams to a ceiling, creating a center beam with cross beams or crafting a coffered ceiling, these beams provide the ideal way to enhance a familys living space.

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Wooden beams that dress up ceilings: A DIY project - STLtoday.com

Lenore Tawney: Dark River, 1962, linen and wood, 164 by 22 1/2 inches.Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lenore Tawney.

IN HER 1965 TREATISE ON WEAVING, the pioneering weaver Anni Albers praises Coptic and ancient Peruvian textiles for their sophisticated formal structurea quality she argues is lacking in contemporary weaving. Yet, she writes, certain recent fiber works do hold interest, including some that trespass into the realm of sculpture. She illustrates her point with photographs of Lenore Tawneys Dark River (1962), a commanding, flawlessly executed weaving that is considered one of the artists masterpieces.

Dark River hung at the center of the exhibition In Poetry and Silence: The Work and Studio of Lenore Tawney. The show was the main event in Lenore Tawney: Mirror of the Universe, a four-part project on view last fall and winter at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The project also included Tawneys 1983 installation Cloud Labyrinth; a display of archival materials such as her journals and letters; and a group show comprising contemporary works that take up strategies that the artist, who died in 2007, at age one hundred, employed in her practice. Dark River is insistently verticalan elongated form, composed of some forty sections woven in black linen, that descends almost fourteen feet from the ceiling and calls to mind lancet arches in Gothic cathedrals. When the work is viewed up close, the particulars of Tawneys hand take precedence: the deft way she created a selvage edge, or repeated the same knot, perfectly, over a span of hundreds of threads, or how she used a single type of yarn to elevate the works formal elements, erasing distracting variations in color, texture, and weight. The overwhelming impression is that of a singular devotion.

Such devotion was central to Tawneys artistic practice, and guided the presentation of her work in the exhibition, which was organized by Karen Patterson, a curator formerly at the museum and now at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. In addition to more than 120 of Tawneys assemblages, drawings, sculptures, and weavings, the show featured an installation loosely re-creating the artists studio in New Yorkwhere she renovated seven lofts between 1957 and 1973complete with her furniture and curios, including ceramics, metal gears, rocks, tortoise shells, wooden shoe molds, and woven baskets. Tawney displayed such objects, many of which she collected during her travels, in highly aesthetic arrangements in her spare, white studios, creating a world of her own, in which she could work in solitude. In interviews, she spoke of losing herself in complex weavings that poured forth like a river, or precise drawings that took entire days to complete. Her solitary tendencies were also a response to her liminal position as a female weaver in postwar New York, stuck between the rigid categories of art and craft. The way forward, Tawney apparently felt, was not to conform, but to do exactly what she wanted to do in her cloistered studios. What emerged was an unexpectedly radical vision of what weaving could be.

TAWNEY WAS BORN IN LORAIN, OHIO, and moved to Chicago at age twenty. She took evening classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago while working as a proofreader. Her first marriage was unhappy; her second, to psychologist George Tawney, ended after eighteen months, when he died from pneumonia. In the fall of 1946, Tawney enrolled at the citys Institute of Design, which functioned as a refuge for European artists, many of them associated with the Bauhaus. She studied drawing with Lszl Moholy-Nagy, drawing and watercolor with Emerson Woelffer, sculpture with Alexander Archipenko, and weaving with Marli Ehrman. After spending the summer at Archipenkos studio in Woodstock, New York, Tawney threw all her sculpture into a cellar in a theatrical moment of self-realization, smashing most of it. Fiercely independent, she did not want to be beholden to anyone elses style. The three small-scale clay works from this period that survive, which were juxtaposed with her early weavings in the exhibition, bear the influence of Archipenkos formal simplicity, Cubist-style planarity, and figural abstraction. Despite Tawneys forceful rejection of sculpture, her training in the medium would guide her approach to weaving in the 1960s and contribute to her most significant artistic innovations.

Working on a secondhand loom in her home in Chicago, Tawney initially wove utilitarian items like shawls and table mats. Her weaving was sporadic until she attended a workshop taught by modernist tapestry weaver Martta Taipale at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina in the fall of 1954. Upon returning to Chicago, Tawney completed her first pictorial weaving, St. Francis and the Birds (1954), a somewhat crudely rendered depiction of the patron saint of animals surrounded by three birds. To make a traditional work like this one, the artist builds up the design with threads known as the weft, lacing them through a set of threads called the warp that is stretched longitudinally on a loom, and pulling them tightly into each other with a component of the loom called a beater or batten, so that they cover the warp. The warp threads are held in a fixed alignment with the looms reed, a closed, comblike implement that is usually attached to the beater. Soon, Tawney was pushing against the constraints of this process.

A 1955 work titled Birds and Flower, included in the recent exhibition, is an important transitional piece that demonstrates just how quickly Tawneys sense of weaving matured. Executed in black and neutral-toned linen and wool threads, it is a chromatically subtle work in which Tawney created textural effects using threads with different weights, surface qualities, and sheens. Four birds appear in profile against a series of overlapping squares in a neatly color-blocked composition that morphs into something else entirely toward its center, where Tawney depicted a flower. She left the petals nearly transparent, with lengths of warp threads hanging loose and exposed. Discontinuous weft threads provide the flowers outline and create patterning on the petals. The delicate petals are counterbalanced by the thick tangle of fluffy yarn that constitutes the blossoms center. Tawneys energetic portrayal of the flower makes the careful silhouettes of the birds in the tapestry suddenly appear staid, even old-fashioned.

Tawneys technique of leaving portions of the warp to hang unsupported by crossing weft threads, known as open-warp weaving, signaled a shift in her work toward a looser, more expressive approach. This style reached a high point in her 1957 piece Shadow River, which could easily pass for an abstract painting if looked at quickly in reproduction. Largely transparent, Shadow River is hung ninety degrees from its orientation on the loom, so that its silver, cream, and white warp threads run lengthwise. Thick woven vertical bands at the sides of the weaving hold the warp threads in place, giving the piece structureto a point. Due to the lack of consistent weft threads throughout the composition, the warp threads sag, creating rippling forms that, while beautiful, compromise the weavings structural integrity. (Tawney collaborated with glass artists Frances and Michael Higgins to encase the work between two pieces of glass, so that it would be stable.) Curving forms made of black and dark purple weft threads appear to float across the weaving, defying the linear matrix produced by the loom. In a virtuoso passage beside this series of arcs, Tawney achieved the lyricism of a freely drawn or painted line using thin black thread.

TAWNEYS FORMAL BREAKTHROUGH COINCIDEDwith an equally dramatic rupture in her personal life: her move to New York. In 1957, at age fifty, she left her comfortable life in Chicagoher friends, her home on the North Shore, her workshop with three loomsto move to a derelict cold-water loft on Coenties Slip, a street in a seaport area on the southern tip of Manhattan. Tawney felt that her life in Chicago was holding her back, and she wanted to focus solely on her art, without distractions.4 She planned to stay in New York for a year, but never left.5

Tawney rented the loft from painter Jack Youngerman and his wife, the actress and filmmaker Delphine Seyrig. What the raw industrial space lacked in amenities, it made up for in its proximity to the East Riverwater was a recurrent motif in Tawneys work, and in Chicago she had lived near Lake Michiganand to other artists. On the Slip, Tawney came in contact with a loosely affiliated group that included Robert Indiana (then Robert Clark), Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, and James Rosenquist. The artists were distinguished from those in Greenwich Village by their isolated location, their respect for one anothers privacy, and a general aversion to the raucous scene at Abstract Expressionist hangouts like the Cedar Tavern.6 Tawney maintained a close relationship with Martin and, to a lesser extent, Indiana, but her role as a weaver set her apart from her Coenties Slip colleagues. In 2017, Youngerman recalled, regretfully, that he had dismissed Tawneys work at the time because as a woman and as a weaver, she was maybe the most outlier of all of us on Coenties Slip. The rest of us were working with paint on canvas, and except for Agnes Martin, we were men.7 That Tawney was left out of Hans Namuths iconic 1958 Life magazine photograph of the artists on the roof of a building on the Slip reflects her outsider status.

In the fall of 1961, Tawney studied Peruvian textiles and gauze weaving techniques with the German fiber artist Lili Blumenau. (Ancient Peruvian textiles were a source of inspiration for many weavers at the time, not just Albers.) Around this timewhile preparing for an exhibition at the Staten Island Museum of works she made since 1955Tawneys aesthetic shifted. She purged her studio of old yarn, and custom-ordered a linen variety that was plied and polished to be hard, dense, and smooth enough to create a woven surface of substantial weight.8 She reduced her palette largely to black and natural-colored linen, expanded her works scale, and, most important, created a new reed for her loom. Whereas standard reeds are closed, Tawneys could be opened at will, enabling her to reposition the warp threads mid-weaving and thus to produce works with shifting geometric formats.

Tawneys open reed had enormous implications for her practice. The complex shapes of pieces like The Bride (1962)a dynamic 11-foot-tall form with variously angled sidesquickly superseded the rectilinearity of her prior weavings.9 The process of making this work, for which she employed three weaving techniques to create different levels of transparency and texture, required exacting concentration and focus over extended periods of time. That she could see only a foot of her composition on the loom at any given time further complicated the process.10 Tawneys ability to execute demanding patterns at such a consistently high level of finish, at such a large scale, further cemented her position at the vanguard of weaving in the United States.

In 1963, Tawneys new works were featured in Woven Forms, an influential group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (now the Museum of Arts and Design) in New York. Paul J. Smith, the director of the museum and curator of the show, conceived the exhibition as a solo presentation of Tawneys work, but decided to expand it to include the work of four other artists (Alice Adams, Sheila Hicks, Dorian Zachai, and Claire Zeisler) producing experimental weavings. The shows title is a term Tawney used to describe the increasingly sculptural quality of her work. In the gallery, Smith displayed Tawneys pieces away from the walls, suspending some at the center of the room. Viewers could walk among her woven forms, examining their surfaces at close range or stepping back to look at a number of them together. Smiths installation, in other words, was premised on movement and invited the viewers physical interaction with Tawneys works.

THE EXPERIENCE OF MOVING AMONG THE WORKSstayed with Tawney and informed her late Cloud series, which she began in 1977 with a piece commissioned for the lobby of the new Federal Building in Santa Rosa, California. She pulled thousands of threads through a large rectangular canvas in a gridded pattern, knotted their ends, and hung the canvas horizontally from the lobbys ceiling, so that the threads cascaded into the spacea dramatic installation that felt light, almost weightless, despite its substantial scale. Tawneys subsequent Clouds followed this basic format. Created for the International Biennial of Tapestry in Lausanne, Switzerland, and installed in its own gallery at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Cloud Labyrinth is a particularly evocative example. For this work, Tawney tied pink threads to the ends of natural-colored ones to create sixteen-foot-long pieces that she attached to an 18-by-24-foot canvas. She coated various threads with gesso, giving them textural contrast and weight, and left areas of the canvas open in a spiral pattern that produces a pathway through the threads when the work is installed. Cloud Labyrinth nearly filled the gallery, and the subtle pink color infused the room with the evanescent glow of a sunrise. The long, hanging threads, which recalled the loose warp threads of Tawneys earlier weavings, quivered and swayed with the slightest current of air as viewers passed by.

Given the fragile nature of Cloud Labyrinth, visitors were not permitted to walk the pathway in the installation. Laura Bickford, the curator of this portion of the Mirror of the Universe project, included a 1979 film, Cloud Dance, in which dancer/choreographer Andy De Groat spins and dances in and around another of Tawneys Clouds. His movements make the piece come alive, underscoring the extent to which Tawneys art had transformed, over nearly three decades, from practical items to sculptural woven forms to, ultimately, installations attuned to the rhythms of the body.

One might say that the Clouds mark the apex of Tawneys long career as an iconoclastic, shape-shifting weaver, the artist once more pushing against the limits of her medium. But to do so is to sell the far-reaching nature of Tawneys body of work short. While the Clouds are composed of knotted threads, they are not, in fact, weavings. More than just a culmination of Tawneys prior work, these ethereal installations represent a crucial moment of its unmaking. Through her knowledge of her materials, her technical ingenuity, and her repeated willingness to risk failure, Tawney remade her medium according to her own exacting vision until, toward the end of her career, she had no more need for weaving at all.

1 Anni Albers, On Weaving, Middletown, Conn., Wesleyan University Press, 1965, pp. 6970.2 Tawney made various statements conveying this inclination. Referring to her mid-1950s weaving Family Tree, for instance, she said, I thought to myself, it wont be any good. Then I thought, but I dont have to show anybody; its just for myself. And I felt so free! She also noted that she didnt care that her first nontraditional weavings were controversial. Both of these incidents are cited in Glenn Adamson, Student: 1945 to 1960, Lenore Tawney: Mirror of the Universe, Sheboygan, Wis., John Michael Kohler Arts Center, in association with Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2019, p. 59.3 See ibid., p. 52.4 Lenore Tawney, journal entry, Dec. 4, 1967, quoted in ibid., p. 69.5 Margo Hoff, Lenore Tawney: The Warp Is Her Canvas, Craft Horizons 17, no. 6, NovemberDecember 1957, p. 19.6 See Agnes Martin, ed. Frances Morris and Tiffany Bell, London, Tate Publishing, 2015, p. 24, and Nancy Princenthal, Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art, New York, Thames & Hudson, 2015, pp. 6667.7 Jack Youngerman, quoted in Adamson, Student, p. 72, n. 94.8 Mildred Constantine and Jack Lenor Larsen, Beyond Craft: The Art Fabric, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1972, pp. 26771.9 For a detailed technical description of this work, see Florica Zaharia, Technical Analysis: The Bride, in Lenore Tawney: Mirror of the Universe, p. 170.10 Lenore Tawney: A Retrospective, ed. Kathleen Nugent Mangan, New York, Rizzoli International Publications, in association with New York, American Craft Museum, 1990, p. 24.

This article appears under the titleDevotion and Solitude in the May 2020 issue, pp. 5461.

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Midcentury Artist Lenore Tawney Offered a Radical Vision of What Weaving Could Be - ARTnews

In addition to our normal news coverage, What Now Atlanta is tracking ways Atlantas businesses are adapting to the novel coronavirus and the challenges it brings to brick-and-mortars.

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Downtown speakeasy Red Phone Booth will reopen its doors on Monday, June 1 after acquiring the latest in air purification technology and sanitizing solutions, the restaurant Tuesday announced in a press release.

Global Plasma Solutions installed Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization (NBPI) technology that purifies air by eliminating airborne particulates, odors, and pathogens by attacking and killing viruses, mold spores, and bacteria, according to the release.

This air filtration technology is reportedly used in many hospitals like Boston Childrens Hospital, the Mayo Clinic and Houston Memorial Hospital Baylor UMC as well as The White House and major universities such as Clemson and Harvard.

Red Phone Booths new cleaning protocols also include frequent disinfecting measures applied throughout the facility from floor to ceiling using Clean Wells healthcare grade disinfectant MonoFoil D that kills 99.9 percent of bacteria on surfaces.

This EPA approved solution bonds to most surfaces providing an active germ barrier for 30-60 days, according to the release.

Other safety measures will include staff uniformed with masks and gloves, reservations, staggered arrival times, half capacity, and social distancing seating as well as frequent sanitization procedures.

Safety for our guests is of the utmost importance at Red Phone Booth, Stephen de Haan, the restaurants co-founder, said.

We were already utilizing the latest technology in air purification since we offer an extensive cigar program. With the installation of the Bipolar Ionization generators and MonoFoil D, our facility will set the gold standard in guest safety and comfort.

Restaurants were allowed to reopen dining rooms as of Monday, April 27, so as long as owners implemented 39 state-issued guidelines.

[Editors note:The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is rapidly evolving as is its effect on Atlanta, and the Citys businesses and its residents.Click here for What Now Atlantas ongoing coverage of the crisis.For guidance and updates on the pandemic,please visit the C.D.C. website.]

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Red Phone Booth Installs Air Purification, 'Disinfection Technology' In Anticipation of June 1 Reopening - What Now Atlanta

2019 was the year California cannabis brands began experimenting with retail concepts, and Los Angeles was ground zero. Sleek vape heavyweight Stiiizy made its suitably emphatic entry into retail in August.

The 6,500-square-foot flagship store on the industrial edge of downtown L.A.s Arts District is one of three retail locations the brand opened in California last year. (The others are in Davis and the Mission District of San Francisco.) The DTLA store brings to life the brands increasingly well realized East and South L.A. streetwear aesthetic, colored with artistic and architectural nods to the recent past and distant future.

Brands have been tapping maverick interior designers and architects from traditional sectors to reimagine their identity in dynamic retail formats, and Stiiizy enlisted San Francisco-based interior architect Gi Paoletti to help navigate the leap.

After fifteen years working in commercial and mixed-used developments for global architecture firms RMW Architecture & Interiors and NBBJ, Paoletti started her own boutique firm Gi Paoletti Design Lab, which specializes in bars, restaurants, and now, conceptual dispensaries. Some of her recent projects include the Bay Areas Tipsy Pig, Bloodhound, and Barrique. Stiiizy was Paolettis first cannabis client, and she admits being surprised about the lightning evolution of design in the herb retail sector.

I think whats really great about cannabis retail, she said, is it went from these shady stores straight to high design. Weve almost skipped that middle area. I think theres something tremendously exciting about that.

High design is apt beyond the trite pun. Stiiizys striking space is vast and cavernous, with an entirely matte-black ceiling that conveys the feeling of infinity looming above. Divided into four stark-white sales pods in which budtenders preside over more than fifty big-name brandsincluding Stiiizys new flower line Liiit, and edibles Biiitthe space also has a vape pen customization bar and a line of, frankly, very cool, limited-edition Stay Stiiizy clothing.

One of the primary directives from the client, Paoletti explained, was they wanted the entire space to be Instagrammable.

Stiiizy has been one of the most successful and active brands on Instagram, boasting around 319,000 followers at the time of writing. In the past year, the brand has found its social steez, recognizing its sleek-on-fleek metallic vapes have become a fashion accessory for L.A.s Supreme- and Golf-clad audience. The brands online presence no doubt has had a major lift from its legion of influential fans, which includes the likes of Migos, Miley Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa, Joe Rogan, and Post Malone.

When you think about making an entire space Instagrammable, youve got to consider whats going to inspire someone to want to take a picture and to share it with their friends. Whats going to create that wow factor? Paoletti said.

For her, the real question was how do you take an empty warehouse with really high ceilings and turn it into something that blows peoples minds, over and over again, every time they come in?

She focused on changeability, advising her client to frequently offer something new and visually compelling. Stiiizy chose to refresh the experience with rotating art and installations. Among the original works on display recently was a twenty-nine-foot installation by renowned L.A. street artist RETNA. Relic wildstyle pieces from L.A. street artists Mr. Cartoon and Kelly Risk Graval adorn the lobby walls.

To the brands founder, James Kim, art is a crucial part of the Los Angeles location. He explained he wanted the store to be a reflection of the creativity in the Arts District.

Paoletti baked the frequent interior refreshes into her design. In the lobby where you check in, we did these Instagram stations, she said. Theres two of them there, and inside are removable panels, so [store management] could change the interior monthly, every six months, whatever they want to do.

Stiiizy DTLAs Instagrammable-ness starts the moment consumers see its Cannabis for the Culture motto emblazoned across the top of the buildings exterior, proudly looking northeast over U.S. Route 101 and the Deja Vu strip club.

Paoletti admits her laser focus on designing a space that can exist in parallel online and in the real world was an interesting and novel challenge, and she said it is particularly innovative for once-clandestine dispensaries.

This idea of making a space like this public in such a big way is new, she said, adding research for the project took her to Denver to explore the OG recreational states retail landscape.

I toured a bunch of different cannabis stores over a week period, and I would ask, Can I take pictures? And they said, No. Absolutely not. Then I had a couple who said, You can take pictures, but no people can be in them. Thats what made me realize Stiiizys store was really at the vanguard of something new.

Her recent experience with city building departments in Los Angeles and San Francisco suggests a sea change in the desire for transparency. As Paoletti tells it, regulators want to move away from the shady, dank dispensaries that defined the pre-recreational era into something considerably more visible.

Its clear that as an architect working in cannabis retail, Paoletti feels a sense of personal obligation and responsibility for the de-stigmatization of weed. Theres still an intimidation around buying cannabis, she said. A person might be curious, but if they walk in and feel intimidated, they might turn around and walk out. Then, youve just lost someone that could have been a lifetime customer.

I think the designers role is to make this space inviting, beautiful, and also easy to walk through, she added. We talk a lot about the aesthetic, but its really important to consider the functionality of the space so people feel comfortable enough to start asking questions and learning this isnt scary. Its just a plant.

Originally posted here:
2019 was the year California cannabis brands began experimenting with retail concepts, and Los Angeles was - mg Cannabis Retailer

William Steele, who lives in Downfield Place, also claims Castle Rock Edinvar (CRE) is responsible for repair work which left wiring in an "unsafe condition," after an electrician came in July to fix bathroom and kitchen lighting which had fused due to flooding from the flat above in November 2018.

Mr Steele, 56, says he plans to take the matter to the Housing Ombudsman and has been in touch with the trade association for the electrical contracting industry in Scotland, SELECT, and the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC).

A CRE spokeswoman said an Electrical Installation Condition Report verifies that the work carried out by their repairs team at Mr Steele's home last year meets the national safety standard for electrical installations. The Evening News has asked to see this report, which is understood to relate only to improvement work done in December.

Pictures taken by Mr Steele show the condition of the wiring when he first discovered it in November, four months after the electrician came to fix the lighting. It appears to show that the junction box a box containing the flat's wiring has been removed and left on top of his water tank lid in a cupboard.

Mr Steele, who has been a tenant in the Dalry flat for 27 years, says he was also hit by rubble falling from his water-damaged bathroom ceiling when part of it collapsed as he showered - and he made a complaint after workers failed to turn up to fix it in July.

The complaint was upheld by CRE managers who apologised to him for a "prolonged series of service failures" including workmen not leaving calling cards when he was not at home, and ensuring appointment letters reached his address.

Mr Steele said: "Dust raining down during the use of the shower was constant and it became a serious concern when they asked to test for asbestos."

He said in December, a year on from the flood, workmen eventually came round to fully repair the bathroom ceiling.

Mr Steele also said he was satisfied with the work done by electricians in December.

But a second complaint made by Mr Steele, concerning the previous condition of the wiring, was not upheld by CRE who said they could not explain why it was outside of the junction box and that they did not leave any electrics in an unsafe state.

Mr Steele added: "It wasn't an act of God.

"The wiring was left sitting on top of the water tank. There were metal pipes resting on a cardboard lid and I could have easily just put my hand up and touched it.

"The water tank cupboard is right outside my bedroom door and, if a fire had started, I would not have been able to get out.

"The whole thing is completely unacceptable."

A Castle Rock Edinvar spokesperson said: "We take our customers concerns very seriously and have liaised with him to address them as effectively and efficiently as possible.

"We can confirm that an Electrical Installation Condition Report verifies that the work carried out by our repairs team at his home last year meets the national safety standard for electrical installations."

A NICEIC spokeswoman said they working with Mr Steele to understand the issue fully in line with their formal complaints procedure.

See original here:
Edinburgh tenant forced to shower while rubble and dust 'rained down' on him as he waited a year for bathroom ceiling fix - Edinburgh News

They say good things come in small packages, which is certainly true of a gallery in Boston. Like other galleries and museums shuttered during the pandemic, it's had to resort to presenting work online, but with a significant twist: The space only measures 20 by 30 inches.

Welcome to Shelter In Place gallery, the creation of Eben Haines, a painter who is also an exhibition designer at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). As he told the art website Hyperallergic, the project began after he lost his job back in March, when the museum closed and furloughed its staff.

Like so many artists, Haines found himself stuck at home, away from his studio. His solution was to launch SIP, which he describes as "as a new platform for Boston artists" on his Instagram account.

SIPwas inspired byHainess participation in a 2018 group show in Minneapolistitled "Art Fair." In something of a send-up of the eponymous mega events that have come to dominate the art world, each artist had to fit their work into an "art fair booth:" A ten-by-ten inch box painted white. Haines realized that a scale-model space could also serve as a tool for his practice going forward; it would let him envision how large pieces would look in an actual exhibition setting by fashioning them first in miniature. And so he created the model that later became SIP.

Once the quarantine began, he started to invite artists to present Lilliputian paintings, sculptures and installations for the showcase, which he'd photograph and post on Instagram. Thanks to such miniaturized industrial-space-turned-gallery details as painted brick walls, windows, skylights, wooden floorboards and ceiling trusses, the images, which are shot in natural light, appear amazingly lifelike, as if they were of a real exhibitionproof that even in these constricted times, imagination has no limits.

More here:
This miniature gallery in Boston exhibits only tiny art - Time Out